Incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat who would go on to lose the election, took his turn last Wednesday.

The following day, Republican challenger and eventual winner Bruce Rauner had his chance.

Facebook manager of strategic partnerships for broadcast Beth Loyd said in a Facebook Media blog post that each Q&A drew nearly 1,000 questions from users of the social network, adding:

ABC7 Chicago loved the idea and ran with it and put resources behind promoting the event. The campaigns realized that this was a unique way to reach a set of voters — those who watch ABC7 or follow the station on its Facebook page — who they may not have gotten to speak to directly before.

Facebook provided ABC7 support and guidance on how to best promote the Q&As, and BumeBox’s curation tool made it easier to highlight the strongest questions for the candidates. Learn more about managing a Q&A on Facebook with BumeBox here.

Readers: Would you like to see similar Q&As on Facebook leading up to elections?